A sold out crowd took over the Largo Theatre this evening for Stand Up for Pits with founder Rebecca Corry and actress Kaley Cuoco (from CBS’s The Big Bang Theory) acting as master of ceremonies. Cuoco spoke with Press Pass LA about her love for pitbulls, she has three of her own!
Musical guests the Watkins Family Hour kicked of the show with their harmonious sounds of minimal folk music. Mycle Wastman, Jennifer Newberry and Pete Donnell make up this trio which was so well-tuned every song ended with thunderous applause. Comedienne and co-creator of CBS’s 2 Broke Girls,Whitney Cummings, discussed everything from sex and stalking to what she thinks in her head! Her take on relationships… “Do you think I like googling your ex-girlfriend three hours a day? Do you think I like going through your phone every night while your asleep? All I’m saying is take your password off your f*&ing phone! For a girl to be called crazy all she has to do is send two text messages in a row.” So yeah, the laughs were rolling in!
Rebecca Corry, comedienne and founder of the Stand Up Up for Pits Foundation, brought her dog Angel on stage, whose story inspired this event. Rescued from an animal shelter in South Central L.A., badly beaten and abused, Ange “survived numerous physical conditions, from her ears cropped off with scissors to a broken tail to battery acid poured on her back. Throughout her months of changing hands and several surgeries, one of my friends suggested that I foster Angel, since my dog Walter had just passed away.” At first Rebecca was going to just look after Angel but after some time they became attached, “She was a little suspicious of me, but after a while I thought she was really amazing.” Corry also shared the story of her audition for 2 Broke Girls, “I went to audition for a role as a black girl and I nailed it! GOT IT! Got the part right? Then my buddy Whitney calls me right before their going to shoot and told me not to go to the set cause they casted a black girl. Man, I had that part!
Comedian Bill Burr (Date Night/ Breaking Bad) performs a routine based on his favorite show Ghost Hunters, “It blows my mind anyone over the age of eight that still believe in ghosts, I find it so fascinating! You can go wherever you want to go, go through walls, fly around, do whatever you want to do, but no, you’re gonna stay down there in the basement…right?…FOREVER, just stay down there, wait for like once every six months for someone to come down and check the water heater and you get to be like…blaaauuugh…why don’t you go somewhere? Fly in to a CIA meeting, not just stay in the attic?”
While boyfriends, auditions and ghosts may have been on everyone’s mind this evening, we need not forget Angel and the hundreds of other pit bulls in need. Much of the stereotypes of pitbulls play into discrimination, abuse and hate. Pitbulls are gentle and loving and how they act is in no fault of their own but rather the person who owns them. This organization strives on the idea that education, positive training, and of course, comedy can change not just people’s thinking about these animals but how they can be positively treated in our society. A safe environment can exist in a community not just for these animals, but for the rest of humanity.
Check out our photo gallery from the red carpet here. Visit Stand Up for Pits.